MARGAO
With the dust raised over the Goa Assembly election settling down, the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGDPA) is bracing up to settle the Outline Development Plan (ODP) for Margao and to finalize the sopo contractor to collect fees in the wholesale fish market.
Sources, however, say that the entire process may be further delayed in the event of a change in political guard in the state after March 10 when the Electronic Voting Machines are opened for counting.
For, while the BJP-led government had opened the ODP within two years when the plan normally remains in force for 10 years, sources said a new government at the helm of affairs may bring in new ideas and proposals on how to go about the draft ODP.
In fact, the process to put in place a new ODP has come to a grinding halt ever since the election code of conduct had come into force in early January. Though the last date of inviting suggestions and objections from the public to the draft-ODP had ended on December 28, the process could not move forward after the election code came into force in the first week of January.
SGPDA member Secretary Ranjit Borkar informed that the process has come to a halt after the election code came into force in January.
“Before the code came into force, the PDA at its last meeting had constituted a committee to go into the suggestions and objections. The committee will now scrutinize the suggestions and objections”, Borkar said.
He, however, said no progress will be made to take the process to the logical conclusion for the simple reason that the ODP needs to be placed before the Authority and discussed before the same is forwarded to the government for approval.
Sources in the know informed that the PDA will have to wait for the new government to take over the reins of office and a new Authority is constituted after the declaration of the election result.
“Unless the Authority is in place, the ODP process will not make any headway. Moreover, the election code of conduct is not lifted yet by the Election Commission”, informed sources.
Meanwhile, the SGPDA member secretary said the process to appoint a new contactor to collect sopo fees from the fish vehicles entering the wholesale fish market is still underway.
“The PDA had received a lone bidder for the sopo fee collection work. We have opened the technical bids and the financial bids will be opened soon”, he said.
Borkar, however, said that since the election code of conduct is still in force, the question of finalizing the contractor and issuing a work order will take some time.
Presently, the work of sopo collection in the wholesale fish market is being carried out departmentally by the SGDPA.
